When it came time to choose wall mounts for the TVs in my home, I
looked at Vantage Point’s vast line of LCD mounts. I decided on
brackets with a swiveling and tilting arm for the bathrooms, so you
could watch TV in either the tub or the shower. For the kitchen, I
chose a flat mount that would allow the TV to be tilted up, down, left
and right, while remaining in a fixed position. The kitchen-mounted TV
is in a small walkway between my kitchen island and my living room
wall, so I did not want there to be a chance that someone could walk by
and have the TV swing out and hit him on the head. The fact that the TV
could tilt down allowed me to mount it just high enough and then angle
it down so that it would not get any glare from the recessed lights in
my kitchen and would not be affected by glare.

To
keep things simple, I decided that I would make the TVs an extension of
what is playing on the TV in the adjoining room. In other words,
whatever is playing on the TV in the master bedroom is also playing on
the TV in the master bath. This was easily achieved using splitters and
the multiple outputs of my Dish Network receivers. Having separate
sources for the TVs may sound like a good idea. However, when the
volume is turned up on two TVs that are so close together, the effect
is simply annoying and sometimes unnerving. The way I wired it, I can
get ready for the day starting in the bedroom and transition to the
bathroom while keeping the same show going.

In the kitchen, the fact that I could not see the HDTV in my living
room while cooking or washing dishes was the reason that I decided to
put a wall-mounted LCD at a 90-degree angle just around the corner from
my 61-inch JVD HD-ILA TV. At first, I had a nice 20-inch standard
definition LCD for the wall, but I quickly learned a little something
about the output of my HD PVR from Dish Network. When watching a
standard definition broadcast, the signal would be passed out of the
secondary component output and would show up on the LCD, so whatever
was on the big TV was also on the smaller one. Of course, since the
20-inch LCD was not an HD-capable set, when a football game on ESPN HD
came on, the screen in the kitchen could not accept the incoming
signal, so the screen would turn solid blue. I checked with Dish
Network to see if a scaled-down 480 signal could be passed to the small
TV, while the big one got the full bandwidth signal via DVI output, but
unfortunately it was either/or. This problem was quickly solved by
returning the 20-inch LCD and purchasing a 17-inch HD-ready widescreen
LCD. Now, when the big game is on, simply pop the LCD on while I'm in
the kitchen so I can follow the action. I have the option of dialing in
a little volume from the LCD or I can crank up the main TV a little and
simply use the small TV as a monitor. Overall, the upgrade to an HD LCD
panel cost me about $100 more than the non-HD LCD.